At the first night of the spring sales, the buyers exhibited restraint. Is this a sign of the market cooling or just a trait peculiar to collectors of Modernism and Impressionism?

Amadeo Modigliani, Jeune Homme Roux Assis, 1919, Lot 5.

Amadeo Modigliani, Jeune Homme Roux Assis, 1919, Lot 5.

On the first night of the spring sales at Christie's, the silver haired filled the James Christie room. Maybe it was timing—Asian collectors were just waking up—but the bidding felt lethargic, sales fell at the low end of estimates, and much of the drama seemed to drain from the room as the majority of lots sold to phone bidders. Andreas Rumbler, Christie's deputy chairman for Impressionism and Modern art, acting as the auctioneer for the evening, leaned on the podium, cocking his head to scrutinize the bidders, who failed to catch fire. This Modigliani was one exception—it sold for $3.6 million more than its high estimate.

Modigliani fled to the South of France toward the end of the First World War. In that sunny remove, he had to rely on young locals to sit for him, and they mostly look bored at the ordeal. Not this young man, whose precise identity—the self-assured heir to a chocolatier?—may be lost to history, but not his assertiveness. Modigliani countered this confidence with some assured use of his own idiom—the face, for all its allusions to African masks, is subtly individual and his rendering of the eyes as two ovate shapes of solid honeydew green bring the sitter vividly to life.

Claude Monet, Nympheas, 1907, Lot 8.

Claude Monet, Nympheas, 1907, Lot 8.

This painting, from the collection of Huguette Clark, traveled extensively in Asia prior to the sale. One Christie's director likened the rare combination of traits—the first sale for a beautiful example of the best known work of an acknowledged master—to the auction world's version of a "perfect storm" but the expected rush of bidders from the region never materialized.

When Monet painted this version of his waterlillies in 1907, he was 66 and a generation of bolder youth that included Picasso were just beginning to replace him in the affection of the public. He reacted by diving deeper into his own strengths and idiosyncrasies. The artist had retired to Giverney, and thanks to his great success over the years he had the wherewithal to spend lavish amounts on his garden. Soon he was staring into the pond he had there, looking for new directions. He started painting his great master series just as the modernists tasted their first success.